Developer Tony Giarratana's planned 60-story residential high-rise at the southwest corner of Fifth and Church will be called Paramount, a $225 million project he expects to redefine downtown's skyline and Nashville's regional identity much like the L&C Tower did more than five decades ago.
At 750 feet tall, the 884,533 square foot Paramount will out-rank the 333 Commerce St. Building, nicknamed the "Batman Building," as the state's tallest skyscraper. The overall project is expected include 630 units — a mix of apartments, condos, penthouses and townhomes that should help to fill demand for more residential dwellings downtown, though some analysts are generally concerned about a glut depending on when they come online.
"We like doing things that are the first — we like challenges," Giarratana said, adding that his strategy of securing prime locations for projects helps to ensure success even when a downturn occurs later in the overall market.
As much as any developer, Giarratana has reshaped the Nashville skyline, starting with The Cumberland as downtown's first apartment tower after a change to allow residential units in the central business district. The Encore was the first condo tower in SoBro, and he brought the first grocery store since 1967 to downtown on the ground floor of The Viridian condo tower.
He's also had false starts such as Signature Tower, which was once planned as the South's tallest building at 1,000 feet tall on the same site where Paramount is planned. It was scrapped because of the Great Recession.
"He's a big thinker and a big doer," said Tom Turner, chief executive of the Nashville Downtown Partnership, who sees Paramount's proximity to the downtown library and many restaurants and workplaces and entertainment venues among the selling points to consumers who desire a certain lifestyle.
Construction to start in 2016
Excavation work on the four-tenths of an acre at Fifth and Church where Giarratana plans Paramount is expected to occur along with work already under way for a Metro parking garage on eight-tenths of an acre of his original site the city bought two months ago.
Construction of Paramount won't start until early 2016, with delivery expected in fall 2018.
Paramount will feature three distinct, but vertically integrated residential communities — each with a dedicated lobby entrance and elevators — plus 5,000 square feet ground-level retail space.
About 300 apartment units are planned for floors two through 27, with 300 condos from floors 29 through 54 plus 26 super-luxury penthouses and four townhomes on floors 55 to 60. Residents will have access to 835 parking spaces, including 400 below ground, 200 more above ground and 235 at the Metro-owned garage.
The apartments will have an entrance at 155 Fifth Ave., the penthouses at 505 Church St. and condos at 515 Church St. The retail space will be at the corner of Fifth and Church, Giarratana said.
The eighth-floor amenity level will serve the apartments but be accessible to all residents. It will include a fitness center, club room, Cyber cafe, theater and game rooms and connect with an amenity deck to be built atop the Metro-owned garage that will include two swimming pools and a dog walk. The condos and penthouses will have their own amenity decks on the 28th and 55th floors, respectively.
Giarratana said the penthouses will range from 1,337 to 2,970 square feet in size. He declined to reveal prices he's targeting for units at Paramount, which is designed by Chicago-based Solomon Cordwell Buenz.
Too many units?
With 98 percent of downtown's rental inventory occupied and only a two-month supply condos, the Downtown Partnership's Turner sees a market for units planned at Paramount.
"It isn't for everybody, but it's for a lot of people — and the people it's for, that population is growing," he said about consumers desiring a lifestyle of luxury and convenience downtown.
Other analysts said Paramount's success will depend in part on the market cycle around when the residential tower is ready for occupancy.
"At some point, the multifamily sector has got to take a breath," said Doug Brandon, regional managing principal at Cassidy Turley in Nashville, citing prospects of interest rates going up among indicators to monitor. "Anything on the market now is going to be fine, but if I had multifamily product coming online in the next 12 to 14 months, I would probably be a little concerned."
Randall Gross, whose study last year for the Metro Development and Housing Agency showed downtown Nashville will be able to accommodate about 3,500 single-family and multi-unit residences over the next five years, said success of larger projects can be harder to predict because of the time it can take developers to line up financing and to complete the development.
Giarratana, who said the name Paramount was derived from the name of an old Nashville theater, is comfortable about outlook for the high-rise tower.
"Nobody believed downtown living would be viable," he recalled about the general thinking when he embarked on plans to develop The Cumberland apartment tower. "This is what makes Nashville great — it's being bold."
Reach Getahn Ward at 615-726-5968 and on Twitter @getahn.
